Discussion

How noisy is Piedmont in Durham?

A lovely friend who is 80-something years old and pretty hard of hearing is coming to visit . We are taking her to dinner on a Thursday night and we were hoping to try Piedmont for the first time. But, I was concerned that if it had a noisy dining room room, it would be difficult for our friend. I haven't heard that it was particularly noisy, but it just crossed my mind. Any other suggestions for a casual, relatively quiet Thursday night meal in the downtown/9th st/Brightleaf area?

I don't remember Piedmont being very noisy . . . but I'm not sure I would be as sensitive to it as some. That said, I think if Pop's as a pretty quiet place.You could also have dinner on the early side, I imagine any restaurant is less noisy then.Good luck!

Don't know about Piedmont as I've not been yet, but Niko's is in Brightleaf and has been a favorite of mine for years. Great food (some of the best calamari in this area), great staff and owner. It is not noisy at all.

The ceiling in Piedmont is pretty high (high enough that it has a balcony level with tables), and it has a great curve to it, due to the style of construction of the old building. I think these two things serve to diminish the noise somewhat. I usually notice when a restaurant is so noisy as to be annoying, and I definitely haven't felt that way about Piedmont.

I would not go so far as to call it "quiet" or "hushed" or any of those adjectives, however. It just doesn't suffer from the awful clangorous din that so many other restaurants seem to feature. The surfaces are mostly hard surfaces, and it's one-big-room in design, so noise will increase linearly with the fullness of the room. It just won't increase exponentially ;-)

Piedmont is open for lunch every day except Tuesday; maybe you have time to swing by there & check it out tomorrow? And/or perhaps one of the tables up in the balcony would be a bit more secluded & quieter.